Video encoding system

ABSTRACT

A video encoding system in which pixel data is decomposed into frequency bands prior to encoding. The frequency bands are organized into blocks that are provided to a block-based encoder. The encoded frequency data is packetized and transmitted to a receiving device. On the receiving device, the encoded data is decoded to recover the frequency bands. Wavelet synthesis is then performed on the frequency bands to reconstruct the pixel data for display. The system may encode parts of frames (tiles or slices) using one or more encoders and transmit the encoded parts as they are ready. A pre-filter component may perform a lens warp on the pixel data prior to the wavelet transform.

PRIORITY INFORMATION

This application is a 371 of PCT Application No. PCT/US2019/039595,filed Jun. 27, 2019, which claims benefit of priority of U.S.Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/691,423, filed Jun. 28, 2018, whichare incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

Virtual reality (VR) allows users to experience and/or interact with animmersive artificial environment, such that the user feels as if theywere physically in that environment. For example, virtual realitysystems may display stereoscopic scenes to users in order to create anillusion of depth, and a computer may adjust the scene content inreal-time to provide the illusion of the user moving within the scene.When the user views images through a virtual reality system, the usermay thus feel as if they are moving within the scenes from afirst-person point of view. Similarly, mixed reality (MR) combinescomputer generated information (referred to as virtual content) withreal world images or a real world view to augment, or add content to, auser's view of the world, or alternatively combines virtualrepresentations of real world objects with views of a three-dimensional(3D) virtual world. The simulated environments of virtual reality and/orthe mixed environments of mixed reality may thus be utilized to providean interactive user experience for multiple applications.

SUMMARY

Various embodiments of a video encoding system are described that mayencode high-resolution video sources at low latencies for transmissionover a communications link (e.g., a wireless link) to a device fordecoding and display. Embodiments of the video encoding system may alsoprovide graceful degradation of encoded video transmitted to the deviceto maintain a desired frame rate in varying conditions such asvariations in the channel capacity of the communications link. Anexample application of the video encoding system is in virtual or mixedreality systems in which video frames containing virtual content arerendered, encoded, and transmitted by a base station to a device (e.g.,a notebook or laptop computer, pad or tablet device, smartphone, orhead-mounted display (HMD) such as a headset, helmet, goggles, orglasses that may be worn by a user) for decoding and display.

Various methods and apparatus may be implemented by the video encodingsystem to maintain the target frame rate through the wireless link andto minimize the latency in frame rendering, transmittal, and display. Inaddition, the methods and apparatus may provide graceful degradation ofencoded video transmitted to the device to maintain a desired frame ratein varying conditions such as variations in the channel capacity of thecommunications link.

In some embodiments, the video encoding system may perform a wavelettransform on the pixel data prior to encoding to decompose the pixeldata into frequency bands. The frequency bands are then organized intoblocks that are provided to a block-based encoder forencoding/compression. The encoded frequency data is then sent to awireless interface that packetizes the encoded frequency data andtransmits the packets to the receiving device. On the receiving device,the encoded data is de-packetized and passed through a block-baseddecoder to recover the frequency bands. Wavelet synthesis is thenperformed on the recovered frequency bands to reconstruct the pixel datafor display.

In some embodiments, the video encoding system may perform slice-basedrendering, encoding, and transmittal. Rather than rendering and encodingentire frames in the base station and transmitting the rendered framesto the device, the base station may render and encode parts or portionsof frames (referred to as slices) and transmit the encoded slices to thedevice as they are ready. Slice-based rendering and encoding may help toreduce latency, and may also reduce the amount of memory needed forbuffering, which reduces the memory footprint on the chip(s) orprocessor(s) as well as power requirements.

In some embodiments, the video encoding system may perform tile-basedrendering, encoding, and transmittal. In tile-based rendering, encoding,and transmittal, each slice may be divided into multiple tiles (e.g.,four tiles), and the base station may render and encode the tiles andtransmit the encoded tiles to the device as they are ready.

In some embodiments, the video encoding system may perform tile-basedencoding using a single encoder to process tiles from each slice.However, in some embodiments, the video encoding system may performtile-based encoding using multiple encoders to process respective tilesfrom each slice. For example, in some embodiments, each slice may bedivided into four tiles, and two encoders may operate on two tiles fromeach slice. Each encoder may multiplex the processing of blocks fromdifferent frequency bands between its tiles to allow for multiple timeunits between the processing of blocks from the same frequency band. Bymultiplexing the processing of blocks between tiles, dependenciesbetween blocks in a frequency band may be handled appropriately.

In some embodiments, the video encoding system may perform pre-filteringof the pixel data in frames prior to the wavelet transform. In someembodiments, pre-filtering may include performing a lens warp functionon the frames on the base station prior to the wavelet transform. Thelens warp is performed to correct for the distortion of the imagesintroduced by the lenses of the device (e.g., of an HMD) that the imagesare viewed through, thus improving quality of the images. Performing thelens warp on the base station in the pre-filter stage may reduce theresolution of the frames prior to performing the wavelet transform andencoding, which may help in improving compression, and may reducelatency and bandwidth usage on the wireless link. In addition, byperforming the lens warp on the base station in the pre-filter stagerather than on the device after decoding, filtering of the image datamay only need to be performed once, as opposed to performing filteringon the base station to reduce resolution prior to encoding and thenperforming lens warp filtering on the device.

In some embodiments, pre-filtering may include filtering to reduceresolution in peripheral regions while maintaining higher resolution infoveated regions. In this method, gaze tracking information obtainedfrom the device may be used to identify the direction in which the useris currently looking. A region of the frame that corresponds to thefovea (referred to as the foveated region) may be identified based atleast in part on the determined gaze direction. In some embodiments, theperipheral region (i.e. the portion of the frame outside the foveatedregion) may be pre-filtered to reduce resolution in the peripheralregion.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a video encoding system thatdecomposes pixel data into frequency bands using a wavelet transformprior to encoding, according to at least some embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a video encoding system that includes multipleencoders that process tiles from frames in parallel, according to atleast some embodiments.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example frame divided into slices and tiles,according to at least some embodiments.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example tile divided into blocks, according to atleast some embodiments.

FIG. 3C illustrates performing a wavelet transform of a pixel block thatstores pixel data to generate frequency band data prior to encoding,according to at least some embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a high-level flowchart of a method of operation for VR/MRsystems that include video encoding systems as illustrated in FIGS. 1and 2 , according to at least some embodiments.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method of operation for a video encodingsystem as illustrated in FIG. 1 , according to at least someembodiments.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method of operation for a video encodingsystem as illustrated in FIG. 2 , according to at least someembodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example VR/MR system that may implement a videoencoding system, according to at least some embodiments.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating components of a VR/MR system asillustrated in FIG. 7 , according to at least some embodiments.

This specification includes references to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment.” The appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “inan embodiment” do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment.Particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined inany suitable manner consistent with this disclosure.

“Comprising.” This term is open-ended. As used in the claims, this termdoes not foreclose additional structure or steps. Consider a claim thatrecites: “An apparatus comprising one or more processor units. . . . ”Such a claim does not foreclose the apparatus from including additionalcomponents (e.g., a network interface unit, graphics circuitry, etc.).

“Configured To.” Various units, circuits, or other components may bedescribed or claimed as “configured to” perform a task or tasks. In suchcontexts, “configured to” is used to connote structure by indicatingthat the units/circuits/components include structure (e.g., circuitry)that performs those task or tasks during operation. As such, theunit/circuit/component can be said to be configured to perform the taskeven when the specified unit/circuit/component is not currentlyoperational (e.g., is not on). The units/circuits/components used withthe “configured to” language include hardware—for example, circuits,memory storing program instructions executable to implement theoperation, etc. Reciting that a unit/circuit/component is “configuredto” perform one or more tasks is expressly intended not to invoke 35U.S.C. § 112, paragraph (f), for that unit/circuit/component.Additionally, “configured to” can include generic structure (e.g.,generic circuitry) that is manipulated by software or firmware (e.g., anFPGA or a general-purpose processor executing software) to operate inmanner that is capable of performing the task(s) at issue. “Configureto” may also include adapting a manufacturing process (e.g., asemiconductor fabrication facility) to fabricate devices (e.g.,integrated circuits) that are adapted to implement or perform one ormore tasks.

“First,” “Second,” etc. As used herein, these terms are used as labelsfor nouns that they precede, and do not imply any type of ordering(e.g., spatial, temporal, logical, etc.). For example, a buffer circuitmay be described herein as performing write operations for “first” and“second” values. The terms “first” and “second” do not necessarily implythat the first value must be written before the second value.

“Based On” or “Dependent On.” As used herein, these terms are used todescribe one or more factors that affect a determination. These terms donot foreclose additional factors that may affect a determination. Thatis, a determination may be solely based on those factors or based, atleast in part, on those factors. Consider the phrase “determine A basedon B.” While in this case, B is a factor that affects the determinationof A, such a phrase does not foreclose the determination of A from alsobeing based on C. In other instances, A may be determined based solelyon B.

“Or.” When used in the claims, the term “or” is used as an inclusive orand not as an exclusive or. For example, the phrase “at least one of x,y, or z” means any one of x, y, and z, as well as any combinationthereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments of a video encoding system are described.Embodiments of the video encoding system may encode high-resolutionvideo sources at low latencies for transmission over a communicationslink (e.g., a wireless link) to a device for decoding and display.Embodiments of the video encoding system may also provide gracefuldegradation of encoded video transmitted to the device to maintain adesired frame rate in varying conditions such as variations in thechannel capacity of the communications link.

An example application of the video encoding system is in virtual ormixed reality systems in which video frames containing virtual contentare rendered, encoded, and transmitted to a device for decoding anddisplay. Embodiments of a virtual or mixed reality system (referred toherein as a VR/MR system) are described in which embodiments of thevideo encoding system may be implemented. In some embodiments, the VR/MRsystem may include a device (e.g., a pad or tablet device, a smartphone,or a headset, helmet, goggles, or glasses worn by the user, referred toherein as a head-mounted display (HMD)), and a separate computingdevice, referred to herein as a base station. In some embodiments, thedevice and base station may each include wireless communicationstechnology that allows the device and base station to communicate andexchange data via a wireless connection. In some embodiments, the devicemay include sensors that collect information about the user'senvironment (e.g., video, depth information, lighting information, etc.)and information about the user (e.g., the user's expressions, eyemovement, hand gestures, etc.). The information collected by the sensorsmay be transmitted to the base station via the wireless connection. Thebase station may include software and hardware (e.g., processors (systemon a chip (SOC), CPUs, image signal processors (ISPs), graphicsprocessing units (GPUs), encoder/decoders (codecs), etc.), memory, etc.)configured to generate and render frames that include virtual contentbased at least in part on the sensor information received from thedevice via the wireless connection. The base station may also include anembodiment of the video encoding system as described herein that maypre-filter, compress and transmit the rendered frames to the device fordisplay via the wireless connection.

In some embodiments, the VR/MR system may implement a proprietarywireless communications technology that provides a highly directionalwireless link between the device and the base station. In someembodiments, the directionality and bandwidth of the wirelesscommunication technology may support multiple devices communicating withthe base station at the same time to thus enable multiple users to usethe system at the same time in a co-located environment. However, othercommercial (e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.) or proprietary wirelesscommunications technologies may be supported in some embodiments.

Primary constraints to be considered on a wireless link includebandwidth and latency. A target of the VR/MR system is to provide a highresolution, wide field of view (FOV) virtual display at a frame rate toprovide the user with a high-quality VR/MR view. Another target is tominimize latency between the time a frame is rendered by the basestation and the time the frame is displayed by the device. However, thechannel capacity of the wireless link may vary with time, and thewireless link may thus support only a certain amount of information tobe transmitted at any given time.

Various methods and apparatus are described herein that may beimplemented by the video encoding system to maintain the target framerate through the wireless link and to minimize the latency in framerendering, transmittal, and display. In addition, the methods andapparatus may provide graceful degradation of encoded video transmittedto the device to maintain a desired frame rate in varying conditionssuch as variations in the channel capacity of the communications link.

In some embodiments, the video encoding system may perform a wavelettransform on the pixel data prior to encoding to decompose the pixeldata into frequency bands. The frequency bands are then organized intoblocks that are provided to a block-based encoder forencoding/compression. As an example, a frame may be divided into 128×128blocks, and a two-level wavelet decomposition may be applied to each128×128 block to generate 16 32×32 blocks of frequency data representingseven frequency bands that may then be sent to an encoder (e.g., a HighEfficiency Video Coding (HEVC) encoder) to be encoded. The encodedfrequency data is then sent to a wireless interface that packetizes theencoded frequency data and transmits the packets to the receiving device(e.g., an HMD). On the receiving device, the encoded data isde-packetized and passed through a block-based decoder to recover thefrequency bands. Wavelet synthesis is then performed on the recoveredfrequency bands to reconstruct the pixel data for display.

While embodiments are generally described in which the wavelet transformis a two-level wavelet decomposition applied to each pixel block from avideo frame, in various embodiments the wavelet decomposition may be anynumber N of levels (e.g., one level, two levels, three levels, fourlevels, etc.), and the number N of levels may be adjusted to trade-offquality of the encoded image vs. complexity of the blocks to be encoded.

In some embodiments, a coring function may be applied to each of thewavelet coefficients within the wavelet decomposition. “Coring” refersto soft-thresholding of the coefficients, and is effective at removingnoise. This may be done in an adaptive manner depending upon regions ofimportance vs. available bandwidth.

In some embodiments, the video encoding system may perform slice-basedrendering, encoding, and transmittal. Rendering, encoding, andtransmitting entire frames may have a latency and memory impact as eachframe needs to be completed, stored, and then transmitted to the nextstage of the VR/MR system. In slice-based rendering, rather thanrendering and encoding entire frames in the base station andtransmitting the rendered frames to the device, the base station mayrender and encode parts of frames (referred to as slices) and transmitthe encoded slices to the device as they are ready. A slice may, forexample, be a row of 128×128 blocks, or two or more rows of blocks.Slice-based rendering and encoding may help to reduce latency, and mayalso reduce the amount of memory needed for buffering, which may reducethe memory footprint on the chip(s) or processor(s) as well as powerrequirements.

In some embodiments, the video encoding system may perform tile-basedrendering, encoding, and transmittal. In tile-based rendering, encoding,and transmittal, each slice may be divided into multiple tiles (e.g.,four tiles), and the base station may render and encode the tiles andtransmit the encoded tiles to the device as they are ready.

In some embodiments, the video encoding system may perform tile-basedencoding using a single encoder to process tiles from each slice.However, in some embodiments, the video encoding system may performtile-based encoding using multiple encoders to process respective tilesfrom each slice. For example, in some embodiments, each slice may bedivided into four tiles, each tile including multiple 128×128 blocks,and two encoders (e0 and e1) may operate on two tiles from each slice(e.g., e0 operates on t0 and t1; e1 operates on t2 and t3). Each encodermay multiplex the processing of blocks from different frequency bandsbetween its two tiles to allow for 16 time units between the processingof blocks from the same frequency band. By multiplexing the processingof blocks between two tiles, dependencies between blocks in a frequencyband may be handled appropriately. While embodiments are described inwhich each slice is divided into four tiles and two encoders operate onrespective tiles from each slice, slices may be divided into more tiles(e.g., six or eight tiles) in some embodiments, and more encoders (e.g.,three or four encoders) may be used in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, the video encoding system may perform pre-filteringof the pixel data in frames prior to the wavelet transform.Pre-filtering may, for example, reduce the resolution of the framesrendered by the base station prior to performing the wavelet transform,encoding, and transmission of the frames to the device over the wirelesslink, which may help in improving compression, and may reduce latencyand bandwidth usage on the wireless link.

In some embodiments in which the device is an HMD, pre-filtering mayinclude performing a lens warp on the frames on the base station priorto the wavelet transform. The lens warp is performed to correct for thedistortion of the images introduced by the lenses on the HMD that theimages are viewed through, thus improving quality of the images. In someembodiments, the HMD may store lens warp data for the lenses, forexample generated by a calibration process, and may provide the lenswarp data to the base station over the wireless connection. The basestation may then perform the lens warp on the frames based on the lenswarp data for that HMD. In conventional VR/MR systems, the lens warp isperformed on the HMD after decoding and prior to display. Performing thelens warp on the base station in the pre-filter stage may reduce theresolution of the frames prior to performing the wavelet transform andencoding, which may help in improving compression, and may reducelatency and bandwidth usage on the wireless link. In addition, byperforming the lens warp on the base station in the pre-filter stagerather than on the HMD after decoding, filtering of the image data mayonly need to be performed once, as opposed to performing filtering onthe base station to reduce resolution prior to encoding and thenperforming lens warp filtering on the HMD.

In some embodiments, pre-filtering may include filtering to reduceresolution in peripheral regions while maintaining higher resolution infoveated regions. In this method, gaze tracking information obtainedfrom the device may be used to identify the direction in which the useris currently looking. Human eyes can perceive higher resolution in thefoveal region than in the peripheral region. Thus, a region of the framethat corresponds to the fovea (referred to as the foveated region) maybe identified based at least in part on the determined gaze direction.In some embodiments, the peripheral region (i.e. the portion of theframe outside the foveated region) may be pre-filtered to reduceinformation based on knowledge of the human vision system, for exampleby filtering high frequency information and/or increasing colorcompression. In some embodiments, the amount of filtering applied to theperipheral region may increase extending towards the periphery of theframe. Pre-filtering of the peripheral region may help to provideimproved compression of the frame.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a video encoding system 120 thatdecomposes pixel data into frequency bands using a wavelet transformprior to encoding, according to at least some embodiments. A VR/MRsystem 10 may include at least one device 150 (e.g., a pad or tabletdevice, a smartphone, or an HMD such as a headset, helmet, goggles, orglasses that may be worn by a user) and a computing device 100 (referredto herein as a base station). The base station 100 renders VR or MRframes including virtual content, encodes the frames, and transmits theencoded frames over a wireless connection 180 to the device 150 fordecoding and display by the device 150.

In some embodiments, the device 150 may include sensors 160 that collectinformation about the user 190's environment (e.g., video, depthinformation, lighting information, etc.) and about the user 190 (e.g.,the user's expressions, eye movement, gaze direction, hand gestures,etc.). The device 150 may transmit at least some of the informationcollected by sensors 160 to the base station 100 via wireless connection180. The base station 100 may render frames for display by the device150 that include virtual content based at least in part on the variousinformation obtained from the sensors 160, encode the frames, andtransmit the encoded frames to the device 150 for decoding and displayto the user via the wireless connection 180.

The base station 100 and device 150 may implement wirelesscommunications technology that allows the base station 100 and device150 to communicate and exchange data via a wireless connection 180. Insome embodiments, the wireless connection 180 may be implementedaccording to a proprietary wireless communications technology thatprovides a highly directional wireless link between the device 150 andthe base station 100. However, other commercial (e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth,etc.) or proprietary wireless communications technologies may be used insome embodiments.

Primary constraints to be considered on the wireless connection 180between the device 150 and the base station 100 in a VR/MR system 10include bandwidth and latency. For example, in some embodiments, atarget is to provide a high resolution, wide field of view (FOV) virtualdisplay to the user at a frame rate that provides the user with ahigh-quality VR/MR view. Another target is to minimize latency betweenthe time a video frame is captured by the device and the time a renderedVR/MR frame based on the video frame is displayed by the device.

The base station 100 may include various hardware components forrendering, filtering, encoding, and transmitting video and/or images asdescribed herein, for example various types of processors, integratedcircuits (ICs), central processing units (CPUs), graphics processingunits (GPUs), image signal processors (ISPs), encoder/decoders (codecs),etc. The base station 100 may include, but is not limited to, a GPUrendering 110 component, a wireless interface 130 component, and a videoencoding system 120 that may include one or more hardware componentsthat implement various methods that may help to maintain the targetframe rate through the wireless connection 180 and to minimize thelatency in frame rendering, encoding, transmittal, and display. Thevideo encoding system 120 may include, but is not limited to, apre-filter 122 component (e.g., an N-channel filter bank), a wavelettransform 124 component, and an encoder 126 component.

GPU rendering 110 may include one or more hardware components that mayrender frames for display by the device 150 that include virtual contentbased at least in part on the various information obtained from thesensors 160.

In some embodiments, the video encoding system 120 may include one ormore hardware components that pre-filter 122 the pixel data in therendered frames prior to performing a wavelet transform 124. Pre-filter122 may, for example, reduce the resolution of the frames rendered onthe base station 100 prior to performing the wavelet transform 124,encoding 126, and transmission to the device 150 over the wirelessconnection 180, which may help in improving compression, and may reducelatency and bandwidth usage on the wireless connection 180.

In some embodiments, pre-filter 122 may perform a lens warp on theframes on the base station 100 prior to the wavelet transform 124. Thelens warp is performed to correct for the distortion of the imagesintroduced by the lenses on the device that the images are viewedthrough, thus improving quality of the images. In some embodiments, thedevice 150 may store lens warp data for the lenses, for examplegenerated by a calibration process, and may provide the lens warp datato the base station 100 over the wireless connection 180. The pre-filter122 component of the video encoding system 120 may then perform the lenswarp on the frames based on the lens warp data for that device 150. Inconventional VR/MR systems, the lens warp is performed on the device 150after decoding and prior to display. Performing the lens warp on thebase station 100 in the pre-filter 122 stage may reduce the resolutionof the frames prior to performing the wavelet transform 124 and encoding126, which may help in improving compression, and may reduce latency andbandwidth usage on the wireless connection 180. In addition, byperforming the lens warp on the base station 100 in the pre-filter 122stage rather than on the device 150 after decoding, filtering of theimage data may only need to be performed once, as opposed to performingfiltering on the base station 100 to reduce resolution prior to encoding126 and then performing lens warp filtering on the device 150.

In some embodiments, pre-filter 122 may also apply one or more filtersto reduce resolution in peripheral regions while maintaining higherresolution in foveated regions. In this method, gaze trackinginformation obtained from the device 150 may be used to identify thedirection in which the user is currently looking. Human eyes canperceive higher resolution in the foveal region than in the peripheralregion. Thus, a region of the frame that corresponds to the fovea(referred to as the foveated region) may be identified based at least inpart on the determined gaze direction. In some embodiments, theperipheral region (i.e. the portion of the frame outside the foveatedregion) may be pre-filtered to reduce information based on knowledge ofthe human vision system, for example by filtering high frequencyinformation and/or increasing color compression. In some embodiments,the amount of filtering applied to the peripheral region may increaseextending towards the periphery of the frame. Pre-filtering of theperipheral region may help to provide improved compression of the frame.

In some embodiments, a wavelet transform 124 component of the videoencoding system 120 may include one or more hardware components (e.g.,an N-channel filter bank) that perform a wavelet transform on the pixeldata prior to encoding to decompose the pixel data into frequency bands.The frequency bands are then organized into blocks that are provided toa block-based encoder 126 for encoding/compression. As an example, asillustrated in FIGS. 3A through 3C, a frame may be divided into 128×128blocks, and a two-level wavelet decomposition may be applied to each128×128 block to generate 16 32×32 blocks of frequency data representingseven frequency bands that may then be sent to a block-based encoder(e.g., a High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) encoder) 126 to be encoded.The encoded frequency data is then sent to a wireless interface 130,implemented by one or more hardware components, that packetizes the dataand transmits the packets to the device 150 over a wireless connection180.

The device 150 may include various hardware components for decoding anddisplaying video and/or images as described herein, for example varioustypes of processors, integrated circuits (ICs), central processing units(CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), image signal processors(ISPs), encoder/decoders (codecs), etc. The device 150 may include, butis not limited to, a wireless interface 152, a decoder 154 component(e.g., High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) decoder), a wavelet synthesis156 component, and a display 158 component. On the device 150, thewireless interface 152 receives the packets that were transmitted overthe wireless connection 180 by the base station 100. The encoded data isde-packetized and passed through a block-based decoder 154 (e.g., a HighEfficiency Video Coding (HEVC) decoder) to recover the frequency bands.Wavelet synthesis 156 is then performed on the recovered frequency datato reconstruct the pixel data for display 158.

In some embodiments, the video encoding system 120 may performslice-based rendering, encoding, and transmittal. Rendering, encoding,and transmitting entire frames may have a latency and memory impact aseach frame needs to be completed, stored, and then transmitted to thenext stage of the VR/MR system 10. In slice-based rendering, rather thanrendering and encoding entire frames in the base station 100 andtransmitting the rendered frames to the device 150, the base station 100may render and encode parts of frames (referred to as slices) andtransmit the encoded slices to the device 150 as they are ready. A slicemay, for example, be a row of 128×128 blocks. Slice-based rendering andencoding may help to reduce latency, and may also reduce the amount ofmemory needed for buffering, which reduces the memory footprint on thechip(s) or processor(s) as well as power requirements.

In some embodiments, the video encoding system 120 may performtile-based rendering, encoding, and transmittal. In tile-basedrendering, encoding, and transmittal, each slice may be divided intomultiple tiles (e.g., four tiles), and the base station 100 may renderand encode the tiles and transmit the encoded tiles to the device 150 asthey are ready.

In some embodiments, the video encoding system 120 may performtile-based rendering, encoding, and transmittal using a single encoder126 to process tiles from each slice. However, in some embodiments, thevideo encoding system 120 may perform tile-based encoding using multipleencoders 126 to process respective tiles from each slice. FIG. 2illustrates a video encoding system 220 that includes multiple encoders(two encoders 226A and 226B, in this example) that process tiles fromrendered frames in parallel, according to at least some embodiments.

A GPU rendering 210 component of the base station 200 may include one ormore GPUs and/or other components that render frames (or slices offrames) for display. A frame may be divided into slices, for example asillustrated in FIG. 3A. As illustrated in FIG. 3A, each slice may bedivided into multiple tiles (four, in this example), each tile includingmultiple blocks. FIG. 3B illustrates an example tile that includes four128×128 blocks. However, blocks of other sizes (e.g. 64×64, 32×32, etc.)may be used in some embodiments, and a tile may include more or fewerblocks.

Pre-filter 222 and wavelet transform 224 components of the videoencoding system 220 may then process each tile prior to encoding 226. Insome embodiments, video encoding system 220 may include a separatepre-filter 222 component and wavelet transform 224 component forprocessing each tile. In this example, pre-filter 222A component andwavelet transform 224A component process tile 0, pre-filter 222Bcomponent and wavelet transform 224B component process tile 1,pre-filter 222C component and wavelet transform 224C component processtile 2, and pre-filter 222D component and wavelet transform 224Dcomponent process tile 3. The pre-filter 222 components performpre-filtering of the tiles as described herein, and the wavelettransform 224 components decompose the tiles into frequency bands asdescribed herein. However, in some embodiments, video encoding system220 may include a single pre-filter 222 component and a single wavelettransform 224 component that process the tiles. In some embodiments,video encoding system 220 may include multiple (e.g., 2) pre-filter 222components and multiple (e.g., 2) wavelet transform 224 components thateach process multiple (e.g., 2) tiles.

Two encoders 226A and 226B may operate on two tiles from each slice(e.g., encoder 226A operates on tile 0 and tile 1; encoder 226B operateson tile 2 and tile 3). Each encoder 226 may multiplex the processing ofblocks from different frequency bands (i.e., the 16 32×32 blocksillustrated in FIG. 3C) between its two tiles to allow for 16 time unitsbetween the processing of blocks from the same frequency band. Bymultiplexing the processing of blocks between two tiles, dependenciesbetween blocks in the same frequency band may be handled appropriately.

While embodiments are described in which each slice is divided into fourtiles and two encoders operate on respective tiles from each slice,slices may be divided into more tiles (e.g., six or eight tiles) in someembodiments, and more encoders (e.g., three, four, or more encoders) maybe used in some embodiments.

FIG. 3C illustrates performing a wavelet transform of a pixel block thatstores pixel data to generate frequency band data prior to encoding,according to at least some embodiments. In this example, a two-levelwavelet decomposition is applied by the wavelet transform 324 componentto a 128×128 pixel block 300 to generate sixteen 32×32 blocks 302 offrequency data representing seven frequency bands. The frequency blocks302 are then provided to an encoder 326 for encoding. For example, thefrequency blocks 302 may be written to a buffer by the wavelet transform324 component, and read from the buffer by the encoder 326 component.

In the labels of the frequency blocks 302, the letter L represents a lowpass filter, and the letter H represents a high pass filter. The blocks302 labeled with two letters represent a one-level (2D) wavelettransform or decomposition. In the blocks 302 labeled with two letters(representing three of the seven frequency bands LH, HL, and HH), thefirst letter represents a vertical filter (either high or low) performedfirst, and the second letter represents a horizontal filter (either highor low) performed second. The blocks 302 labeled with four lettersrepresent a two-level wavelet transform or decomposition. In the blocks302 labeled with four letters, the first two letters (LL) indicate thatthere was first a vertical low pass filter followed by a horizontal lowpass filter; the second two letters indicate that the resulting LL blockwas then filtered four ways, LL, LH, HL, and HH (thus generating four ofthe seven frequency bands (LLLL, LLLH, LLHL, and LLHH).

Decomposing the pixel data into frequency bands as illustrated in FIG.3C allows the frequency bands to be buffered and processed as separatestreams by the encoder 326. Processing the frequency bands as separatestreams allows the encoder 326 component to multiplex the processing ofthe independent streams. In block-based encoding methods such as HEVCencoding, blocks (referred to as coding tree units (CTUs)) are processedin a block processing pipeline at multiple stages; two or more blocksmay be at different stages of the pipeline at a given clock cycle, andthe blocks move through the pipeline as the clock cycles. The processingof a given block may have dependencies on one or more previouslyprocessed neighbor blocks, for example one or more blocks in the rowabove the given block and/or the block to the left of the given block.By multiplexing the processing of the streams of frequency band data,the encoder 326 spaces out the processing of the blocks in a givenstream, thus providing additional clock cycles to process a neighborblock on which a given block has dependencies. For example, the block tothe left of the given block may be several stages ahead of the givenblock in the pipeline when the given block reaches a stage that dependson the previously processed neighbor block. This allows the encoder 326to better handle dependencies on previously processed blocks, andreduces or eliminates the need to wait for completion of processing of aneighbor block in the pipeline before processing the given block at astage that depends on the neighbor block.

In addition, decomposing the pixel data into frequency bands asillustrated in FIG. 3C allows the frequency bands to be prioritized bythe encoder 326 and the wireless interface. Typically, in image andvideo transmission, the lower frequencies are more important, while thehigher frequencies are less important. Higher frequencies usuallycorrespond to details in the image, and thus can be considered as lowerpriority. The higher frequency bands contain a smaller percentage of theenergy in the image. Most of the energy is contained in the lowerfrequency bands. Decomposing the pixel data into frequency bands thusprovides a priority ordering to the data stream that can be leveraged bythe encoder 326 and the wireless interface when encoding andtransmitting the data stream. For example, in some embodiments,different compression techniques may be used on the different frequencybands, with more aggressive compression applied to the lower prioritybands, and more conservative compression applied to the higher prioritybands. As another example, the priority ordering of the frequency bandsmay help in providing graceful degradation of the VR/MR system.Performance of the wireless connection can be monitored, and feedbackfrom the device may be considered, to track performance of the overallsystem. If the system is falling behind for some reason, for example ifthe wireless connection degrades and bandwidth capacity of the wirelessconnection drops below a threshold, the encoder 326 and wirelessinterface may prioritize the encoding and transmission of one or more ofthe lower frequency bands, and may reduce or drop the encoding and/ortransmission of one or more of the frequency levels that have beenassigned a lower priority level, for example one or more of the higherfrequency bands.

As described above, the wavelet transform decomposes an image intofrequency bands. In some embodiments, this may be leveraged to send thesame signal to displays of varying resolution. As an example, atwo-level wavelet decomposition may be applied to decompose the signalinto seven frequency bands. If four of the bands (LLLL, LLLH, LLHL andLLHH) are sent to a display panel, the bands may be reconstructed to theoriginal intended resolution at lower visual quality. As an alternative,the bands may be reconstructed at ¼th resolution (½ in each dimension)which may be suitable for a display panel with lower display resolution.

FIG. 4 is a high-level flowchart of a method of operation for VR/MRsystems that include video encoding systems as illustrated in FIGS. 1and 2 , according to at least some embodiments. As indicated at 400, thedevice sends data to the base station over the wireless connection. Asindicated at 410, the base station renders frames including virtualcontent based at least in part on the data received from the device. Asindicated at 420, the base station compresses the rendered data andsends the compressed data to the device over the wireless connection. Asindicated at 430, the device decompresses and displays the virtualcontent to generate a 3D virtual view for viewing by the user. Asindicated by the arrow returning from 430 to 400, the method continuesas long as the user is using the VR/MR system.

In some embodiments, rather than rendering and encoding entire frames inthe base station and transmitting the rendered frames to the device, thebase station may render and encode parts of frames (referred to asslices) and transmit the encoded slices to the device as they are ready.A slice may, for example, be a row of 128×128 blocks. In someembodiments, the video encoding system may perform tile-based rendering,encoding, and transmittal. In tile-based rendering, encoding, andtransmittal, each slice may be divided into multiple tiles eachincluding one or more blocks (e.g., four tiles, each including fourblocks), and the base station may render and encode the tiles andtransmit the encoded tiles to the device as they are ready.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method of operation for a video encodingsystem as illustrated in FIG. 1 , according to at least someembodiments. The method of FIG. 5 may, for example, be performed at 420of FIG. 4 . The method of FIG. 5 assumes slice-based encoding andtransmission is being performed. However, in some embodiments,tile-based encoding and transmission may be performed.

As indicated at 510, the pre-filter component applies lens warp and/orfoveation filters to pixel blocks in a slice of the frame. In someembodiments, pre-filtering may include performing a lens warp on theframes on the base station prior to the wavelet transform. The lens warpis performed to correct for the distortion of the images introduced bythe lenses on the device that the images are viewed through, thusimproving quality of the images. In some embodiments, the device maystore lens warp data for the lenses, for example generated by acalibration process, and may provide the lens warp data to the basestation over the wireless connection. The base station may then performthe lens warp on the frames based on the lens warp data for that device.Performing the lens warp on the base station in the pre-filter stage mayreduce the resolution of the frames prior to performing the wavelettransform and encoding, which may help in improving compression, and mayreduce latency and bandwidth usage on the wireless link. In addition, byperforming the lens warp on the base station in the pre-filter stagerather than on the device after decoding, filtering of the image datamay only need to be performed once, as opposed to performing filteringon the base station to reduce resolution prior to encoding and thenperforming lens warp filtering on the device.

In some embodiments, pre-filtering at 510 may also include filtering toreduce resolution in peripheral regions while maintaining higherresolution in foveated regions. In some embodiments, gaze trackinginformation obtained from the device may be used to identify thedirection in which the user is currently looking. A region of the framethat corresponds to the fovea (referred to as the foveated region) maybe identified based at least in part on the determined gaze direction.The peripheral region (i.e. the portion of the frame outside thefoveated region) may be pre-filtered to reduce information based onknowledge of the human vision system, for example by filtering highfrequency information and/or increasing color compression. Pre-filteringof the peripheral region may help to provide improved compression of theframe.

As indicated at 520, the wavelet transform component applies a wavelettransform technique to the pixel blocks to decompose the pixel data intoN (e.g., 7) frequency bands. The frequency bands are then organized intoblocks that are provided to a block-based encoder forencoding/compression. As an example, a frame may be divided into 128×128blocks, and a two-level wavelet decomposition may be applied to each128×128 block to generate 16 32×32 blocks of frequency data representingseven frequency bands, for example as illustrated in FIG. 3C.

As indicated at 530, the encoder applies an encoding technique to thefrequency bands in the blocks to compress the data. The encoder may, forexample, be a High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) encoder. However,other encoding techniques may be used in some embodiments. Decomposingthe pixel data into frequency bands as indicated at element 520 allowsthe frequency bands to be buffered and processed as separate streams bythe encoder. Processing the frequency bands as separate streams allowsthe encoder component to multiplex the processing of the independentstreams. In block-based encoding methods such as HEVC encoding, blocks(referred to as coding tree units (CTUs)) are processed in a pipeline atmultiple stages; two or more blocks may be at different stages of thepipeline at a given clock cycle, and the blocks move through thepipeline as the clock cycles. The processing of a given block may havedependencies on one or more previously processed neighbor blocks, forexample one or more blocks in the row above the given block and/or theblock to the left of the given block. By multiplexing the processing ofthe streams, the encoder spaces out the processing of the blocks in agiven stream, thus providing additional clock cycles to process aneighbor block on which a given block has dependencies. For example, theblock to the left of the given block may be several stages ahead of thegiven block in the pipeline when the given block reaches a stage thatdepends on the previously processed neighbor block. This allows theencoder to better handle dependencies on previously processed blocks,and reduces or eliminates the need to wait for completion of processingof a neighbor block in the pipeline before processing the given block ata stage that depends on the neighbor block.

As indicated at 540, the wireless interface packetizes the compresseddata and sends the packets to the device over the wireless connection.

Decomposing the pixel data into frequency bands as indicated at element520 allows the frequency bands to be prioritized by the encoder atelement 530 and the wireless interface at element 540. Typically, inimage and video transmission, the lower frequencies are more important,while the higher frequencies are less important. Higher frequenciesusually correspond to details in the image, and thus can be consideredas lower priority. The higher frequency bands contain a smallerpercentage of the energy in the image. Most of the energy is containedin the lower frequency bands. Decomposing the pixel data into frequencybands thus provides a priority ordering to the data stream that can beleveraged by the encoder and the wireless interface when encoding andtransmitting the data stream. For example, in some embodiments,different compression techniques may be used on the different frequencybands, with more aggressive compression applied to the lower prioritybands, and more conservative compression applied to the higher prioritybands. As another example, the priority ordering of the frequency bandsmay help in providing graceful degradation of the VR/MR system.Performance of the wireless connection can be monitored, and feedbackfrom the device may be considered, to track performance of the overallsystem. If the system is falling behind for some reason, for example ifthe wireless connection degrades and bandwidth capacity of the wirelessconnection drops below a threshold, the encoder and wireless interfacemay prioritize the encoding and transmission of one or more of the lowerfrequency bands, and may reduce or drop the encoding and/or transmissionof one or more of the frequency levels that have been assigned a lowerpriority level, for example one or more of the higher frequency bands.

At 550, if there are more slices to be encoded and transmitted, themethod returns to element 510 to process the next slice. Otherwise, at560, if there are more frames to be encoded and transmitted, the methodreturns to element 510 to begin processing the next frame.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method of operation for a video encodingsystem as illustrated in FIG. 2 , according to at least someembodiments. The method of FIG. 6 may, for example, be performed at 420of FIG. 4 . In the method of FIG. 6 , the video encoding system mayperform tile-based encoding using multiple encoders to processrespective tiles from each slice.

As indicated at 600, a rendering engine renders a slice includingmultiple tiles (four tiles, in this example), each tiles includingmultiple pixel blocks (four 128×128 pixel blocks, in this example).

As indicated at 610, the pre-filter component applies lens warp and/orfoveation filters to the slice. In some embodiments, pre-filtering mayinclude performing a lens warp on the frames on the base station priorto the wavelet transform. The lens warp is performed to correct for thedistortion of the images introduced by the lenses on the device that theimages are viewed through, thus improving quality of the images. In someembodiments, the device may store lens warp data for the lenses, forexample generated by a calibration process, and may provide the lenswarp data to the base station over the wireless connection. The basestation may then perform the lens warp on the frames based on the lenswarp data for that device. Performing the lens warp on the base stationin the pre-filter stage may reduce the resolution of the frames prior toperforming the wavelet transform and encoding, which may help inimproving compression, and may reduce latency and bandwidth usage on thewireless link. In addition, by performing the lens warp on the basestation in the pre-filter stage rather than on the device afterdecoding, filtering of the image data may only need to be performedonce, as opposed to performing filtering on the base station to reduceresolution prior to encoding and then performing lens warp filtering onthe device.

In some embodiments, pre-filtering at 610 may also include filtering toreduce resolution in peripheral regions while maintaining higherresolution in foveated regions. In some embodiments, gaze trackinginformation obtained by the device may be used to identify the directionin which the user is currently looking. A region of the frame thatcorresponds to the fovea (referred to as the foveated region) may beidentified based at least in part on the determined gaze direction. Theperipheral region (i.e. the portion of the frame outside the foveatedregion) may be pre-filtered to reduce information based on knowledge ofthe human vision system, for example by filtering high frequencyinformation and/or increasing color compression. Pre-filtering of theperipheral region may help to provide improved compression of the frame.

In some embodiments, the video encoding system may include a singlepre-filter component that process the tiles. In some embodiments, thevideo encoding system may include a separate pre-filter component forprocessing each tile. In some embodiments, the video encoding system mayinclude multiple (e.g., 2) pre-filter components that each processmultiple (e.g., 2) tiles.

As indicated at 620, the wavelet transform component applies a wavelettransform technique to the pixel blocks in the slice to decompose thepixel data into N (e.g., 7) frequency bands. The frequency bands arethen organized into blocks (e.g., CTUs) that can be provided to ablock-based encoder for encoding/compression. As an example, a frame maybe divided into 128×128 blocks, and a two-level wavelet decompositionmay be applied to each 128×128 block to generate 16 32×32 blocks offrequency data representing seven frequency bands, for example asillustrated in FIG. 3C.

In some embodiments, the video encoding system may include a singlewavelet transform component that process the tiles. In some embodiments,the video encoding system may include a separate wavelet transformcomponent for processing each tile. In some embodiments, the videoencoding system may include multiple (e.g., 2) wavelet transformcomponents that each process multiple (e.g., 2) tiles.

In the method of FIG. 6 , an example video encoding system includes twoencoders configured to encode the blocks of frequency data fromdifferent ones of the slices that are generated at element 620 inparallel. For example, a first encoder may be configured to encodeblocks from slices 0 and 1, and a second encoder may be configured toencode blocks from slices 2 and 3. As indicated at 630A, the firstencoder applies an encoding technique to the frequency bands in theblocks of tiles 0 and 1, multiplexing the processing of blocks fromdifferent frequency bands between the two different tiles. As indicatedat 630B, a second encoder applies an encoding technique to the frequencybands in the blocks of tiles 2 and 3, multiplexing the processing ofblocks from different frequency bands between the two different tiles.

The encoders may, for example, be a High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)encoders. However, other encoding techniques may be used in someembodiments. Decomposing the pixel data into frequency bands asindicated at element 620 allows the frequency bands to be buffered andprocessed as separate streams by the encoders at elements 630A and 630B.Processing the frequency bands as separate streams allows the encodersto multiplex the processing of the independent streams. In block-basedencoding methods such as HEVC encoding, blocks (referred to as codingtree units (CTUs)) are processed in a pipeline at multiple stages; twoor more blocks may be at different stages of the pipeline at a givenclock cycle, and the blocks move through the pipeline as the clockcycles. The processing of a given block may have dependencies on one ormore previously processed neighbor blocks, for example one or moreblocks in the row above the given block and/or the block to the left ofthe given block. By multiplexing the processing of the streams, theencoder spaces out the processing of the blocks in a given stream, thusproviding additional clock cycles to process a neighbor block on which agiven block has dependencies. For example, the block to the left of thegiven block may be several stages ahead of the given block in thepipeline when the given block reaches a stage that depends on thepreviously processed neighbor block. This allows the encoder to betterhandle dependencies on previously processed blocks, and reduces oreliminates the need to wait for completion of processing of a neighborblock in the pipeline before processing the given block at a stage thatdepends on the neighbor block.

As indicated at 640, the wireless interface packetizes the compresseddata generated by the encoders at element 530 and sends the packets tothe device over the wireless connection. As indicated by the arrowreturning from 650 to 600, the method continues as long as the user isusing the VR/MR system.

Decomposing the pixel data into frequency bands as indicated at element620 allows the frequency bands to be prioritized by the encoders atelements 630A and 630B and the wireless interface at element 640.Typically, in image and video transmission, the lower frequencies aremore important, while the higher frequencies are less important. Higherfrequencies usually correspond to details in the image, and thus can beconsidered as lower priority. The higher frequency bands contain asmaller percentage of the energy in the image. Most of the energy iscontained in the lower frequency bands. Decomposing the pixel data intofrequency bands thus provides a priority ordering to the data streamthat can be leveraged by the encoder and the wireless interface whenencoding and transmitting the data stream. For example, in someembodiments, different compression techniques may be used on thedifferent frequency bands, with more aggressive compression applied tothe lower priority bands, and more conservative compression applied tothe higher priority bands. As another example, the priority ordering ofthe frequency bands may help in providing graceful degradation of theVR/MR system. Performance of the wireless connection can be monitored,and feedback from the device may be considered, to track performance ofthe overall system. If the system is falling behind for some reason, forexample if the wireless connection degrades and bandwidth capacity ofthe wireless connection drops below a threshold, the encoder andwireless interface may prioritize the encoding and transmission of oneor more of the lower frequency bands, and may reduce or drop theencoding and/or transmission of one or more of the frequency levels thathave been assigned a lower priority level, for example one or more ofthe higher frequency bands.

While embodiments are described in which each slice is divided into fourtiles and two encoders operate on respective tiles from each slice,slices may be divided into more tiles (e.g., six or eight tiles) in someembodiments, and more encoders (e.g., three or four encoders) may beused in some embodiments.

Example VR/MR System

FIG. 7 illustrates an example VR/MR system 2000 that may implement avideo encoding system, according to at least some embodiments. A VR/MRsystem 2000 may include at least one device 2150 (e.g., a notebook orlaptop computer, pad or tablet device, smartphone, hand-held computingdevice or an HMD such as a headset, helmet, goggles, or glasses that maybe worn by a user) and a computing device 2100 (referred to herein as abase station). The base station 2100 renders VR or MR frames includingvirtual content, encodes the frames, and transmits the encoded framesover a wireless connection 2180 to the device 2150 for decoding anddisplay by the device 2150.

The base station 2100 and device 2150 may each include wirelesscommunications technology that allows the base station 2100 and device2150 to communicate and exchange data via the wireless connection 2180.In some embodiments, the wireless connection 2180 may be implementedaccording to a proprietary wireless communications technology thatprovides a highly directional wireless link between the device 2150 andthe base station 2100. However, other commercial (e.g., Wi-Fi,Bluetooth, etc.) or proprietary wireless communications technologies maybe used in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, the device 2150 may include sensors that collectinformation about the user's environment (e.g., video, depthinformation, lighting information, etc.) and/or about the user (e.g.,the user's expressions, eye movement, gaze direction, hand gestures,etc.). The device 2150 may transmit at least some of the informationcollected by sensors to the base station 2100 via wireless connection2180. The base station 2100 may render frames for display by the device2150 that include virtual content based at least in part on the variousinformation obtained from the sensors, encode the frames, and transmitthe encoded frames to the device 2150 for decoding and display to theuser via the wireless connection 2180. To encode and transmit theframes, the base station 2100 may implement a video encoding system asillustrated in FIGS. 1 through 6 .

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating functional components of andprocessing in an example VR/MR system as illustrated in FIG. 7 ,according to some embodiments. Device 2150 may be, but is not limitedto, a notebook or laptop computer, pad or tablet device, smartphone,hand-held computing device or an HMD such as a headset, helmet, goggles,or glasses that may be worn by a user. Device 2150 may include a display2156 component or subsystem that may implement any of various types ofvirtual or augmented reality display technologies. For example, an HMDdevice 2150 may be a near-eye system that displays left and right imageson screens in front of the user's eyes that are viewed by a subject,such as DLP (digital light processing), LCD (liquid crystal display) andLCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) technology VR systems. As anotherexample, an HMD device 2150 may be a direct retinal projector systemthat scans left and right images, pixel by pixel, to the subject's eyes.To scan the images, left and right projectors generate beams that aredirected to left and right reflective components (e.g., ellipsoidmirrors) located in front of the user's eyes; the reflective componentsreflect the beams to the user's eyes. To create a three-dimensional (3D)effect, virtual content at different depths or distances in the 3Dvirtual view are shifted left or right in the two images as a functionof the triangulation of distance, with nearer objects shifted more thanmore distant objects.

Device 2150 may also include a controller 2154 configured to implementdevice-side functionality of the VR/MR system 2000 as described herein.In some embodiments, HMD 2150 may also include memory 2170 configured tostore software (code 2172) of the device component of the VR/MR system2000 that is executable by the controller 2154, as well as data 2174that may be used by the software when executing on the controller 2154.In various embodiments, the controller 2154 may be a uniprocessor systemincluding one processor, or a multiprocessor system including severalprocessors (e.g., two, four, eight, or another suitable number). Thecontroller 2154 may include central processing units (CPUs) configuredto implement any suitable instruction set architecture, and may beconfigured to execute instructions defined in that instruction setarchitecture. For example, in various embodiments the controller 2154may include general-purpose or embedded processors implementing any of avariety of instruction set architectures (ISAs), such as the x86,PowerPC, SPARC, RISC, or MIPS ISAs, or any other suitable ISA. Inmultiprocessor systems, each of the processors may commonly, but notnecessarily, implement the same ISA. The controller 2154 may employ anymicroarchitecture, including scalar, superscalar, pipelined,superpipelined, out of order, in order, speculative, non-speculative,etc., or combinations thereof. The controller 2154 may include circuitryto implement microcoding techniques. The controller 2154 may include oneor more processing cores each configured to execute instructions. Thecontroller 2154 may include one or more levels of caches, which mayemploy any size and any configuration (set associative, direct mapped,etc.). In some embodiments, the controller 2154 may include at least onegraphics processing unit (GPU), which may include any suitable graphicsprocessing circuitry. Generally, a GPU may be configured to renderobjects to be displayed into a frame buffer (e.g., one that includespixel data for an entire frame). A GPU may include one or more graphicsprocessors that may execute graphics software to perform a part or allof the graphics operation, or hardware acceleration of certain graphicsoperations. In some embodiments, the controller 2154 may include one ormore other components for processing and rendering video and/or images,for example image signal processors (ISPs), encoder/decoders (codecs),etc. In some embodiments, controller 2154 may include at least onesystem on a chip (SOC).

The memory 2170 may include any type of memory, such as dynamic randomaccess memory (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate (DDR,DDR2, DDR3, etc.) SDRAM (including mobile versions of the SDRAMs such asmDDR3, etc., or low power versions of the SDRAMs such as LPDDR2, etc.),RAMBUS DRAM (RDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), etc. In some embodiments, one ormore memory devices may be coupled onto a circuit board to form memorymodules such as single inline memory modules (SIMMs), dual inline memorymodules (DIMMs), etc. Alternatively, the devices may be mounted with anintegrated circuit implementing system in a chip-on-chip configuration,a package-on-package configuration, or a multi-chip moduleconfiguration.

In some embodiments, sensors 2160 may include, but are not limited to,one or more gaze tracking sensors (e.g., IR cameras with an IRillumination source) that may be used to track position and movement ofthe user's eyes. In some embodiments, there may be two gaze trackingsensors, with each gaze tracking sensor tracking a respective eye. Insome embodiments, the information collected by the gaze tracking sensorsmay be used to adjust the rendering of images by the base station 2100,and/or to adjust the projection of the images by the projection systemof the device 2150, based on the direction and angle at which the user'seyes are looking. For example, in some embodiments, content of theimages in a region around the location at which the user's eyes arecurrently looking may be rendered with more detail and at a higherresolution than content in regions at which the user is not looking,which allows available processing time for image data to be spent oncontent viewed by the foveal regions of the eyes rather than on contentviewed by the peripheral regions of the eyes. Similarly, content ofimages in regions at which the user is not looking may be compressedmore than content of the region around the point at which the user iscurrently looking. In some embodiments there may be two gaze trackingsensors located on an inner surface of the device 2150 at positions suchthat the sensors have views of respective ones of the user's eyes.However, in various embodiments, more or fewer gaze tracking sensors maybe used, and gaze tracking sensors may be positioned at other locations.In an example non-limiting embodiment, each gaze tracking sensor mayinclude an IR light source and IR camera, for example a 400×400 pixelcount camera with a frame rate of 120 FPS or greater, HFOV of 70degrees, and with a working distance of 10 millimeters (mm) to 80 mm.

In some embodiments, the device 2150 may include at least oneinertial-measurement unit (IMU) 2162 configured to detect position,orientation, and/or motion of the device 2150, and to provide thedetected position, orientation, and/or motion data to the controller2154 of the HMD 2150 and/or to the base station 2100.

Device 2150 may also include a wireless interface 2152 configured tocommunicate with an external base station 2100 via a wireless connection2180 to send sensor inputs to the base station 2100 and to receivecompressed rendered frames, slices, or tiles from the base station 2100.In some embodiments, the wireless interface 2152 may implement aproprietary wireless communications technology that provides a highlydirectional wireless link between the device 2150 and the base station2100. However, other commercial (e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.) orproprietary wireless communications technologies may be used in someembodiments.

The base station 2100 may be an external device (e.g., a computingsystem, game console, etc.) that is communicatively coupled to device2150 via a wireless interface 2180. The base station 2100 may includeone or more of various types of processors (e.g., SOCs, CPUs, ISPs,GPUs, codecs, and/or other components) for rendering, filtering,encoding, and transmitting video and/or images. The base station 2100may render frames (each frame including a left and right image) thatinclude virtual content based at least in part on the various inputsobtained from the sensors 2160 via the wireless connection 2180, filterand compress the rendered frames (or slices of the frames) using a videoencoding system as described herein, and transmit the compressed framesor slices to the device 2150 for display.

Base station 2100 may be or may include any type of computing system orcomputing device, such as a desktop computer, notebook or laptopcomputer, pad or tablet device, smartphone, hand-held computing device,game controller, game system, and so on. Base station 2100 may include acontroller 2110 comprising one or more processors that implementbase-side functionality of the VR/MR system 2000 including the videoencoding system as described herein. Base station 2100 may also includememory 2120 configured to store software (code 2122) of the base stationcomponent of the VR/MR system 2000 that is executable by the basestation controller 2110, as well as data 2124 that may be used by thesoftware when executing on the controller 2110.

In various embodiments, the base station controller 2110 may be auniprocessor system including one processor, or a multiprocessor systemincluding several processors (e.g., two, four, eight, or anothersuitable number). The controller 2110 may include central processingunits (CPUs) configured to implement any suitable instruction setarchitecture and may be configured to execute instructions defined inthat instruction set architecture. For example, in various embodimentsthe controller 2110 may include general-purpose or embedded processorsimplementing any of a variety of instruction set architectures (ISAs),such as the x86, PowerPC, SPARC, RISC, or MIPS ISAs, or any othersuitable ISA. In multiprocessor systems, each of the processors maycommonly, but not necessarily, implement the same ISA. The controller2110 may employ any microarchitecture, including scalar, superscalar,pipelined, superpipelined, out of order, in order, speculative,non-speculative, etc., or combinations thereof. Controller 2110 mayinclude circuitry to implement microcoding techniques. The controller2110 may include one or more processing cores each configured to executeinstructions. The controller 2110 may include one or more levels ofcaches, which may employ any size and any configuration (setassociative, direct mapped, etc.). In some embodiments, the controller2110 may include at least one graphics processing unit (GPU), which mayinclude any suitable graphics processing circuitry. Generally, a GPU maybe configured to render objects to be displayed into a frame buffer(e.g., one that includes pixel data for an entire frame). A GPU mayinclude one or more graphics processors that may execute graphicssoftware to perform a part or all of the graphics operation, or hardwareacceleration of certain graphics operations. In some embodiments, thecontroller 2110 may include one or more other components for processing,rendering, filtering, and encoding video and/or images as describedherein, for example one or more of various types of integrated circuits(ICs), image signal processors (ISPs), encoder/decoders (codecs), etc.In some embodiments, the controller 2110 may include at least one systemon a chip (SOC).

The base station memory 2120 may include any type of memory, such asdynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), doubledata rate (DDR, DDR2, DDR3, etc.) SDRAM (including mobile versions ofthe SDRAMs such as mDDR3, etc., or low power versions of the SDRAMs suchas LPDDR2, etc.), RAMBUS DRAM (RDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), etc. In someembodiments, one or more memory devices may be coupled onto a circuitboard to form memory modules such as single inline memory modules(SIMMs), dual inline memory modules (DIMMs), etc. Alternatively, thedevices may be mounted with an integrated circuit implementing system ina chip-on-chip configuration, a package-on-package configuration, or amulti-chip module configuration.

Base station 2100 may also include one or more wireless technologyinterfaces 2130 configured to communicate with device 2150 via awireless connection 2180 to receive sensor inputs from the device 2150and send compressed frames, slices, or tiles from the base station 2100to the device 2150. In some embodiments, a wireless technology interface2130 may implement a proprietary wireless communications technology thatprovides a highly directional wireless link between the device 2150 andthe base station 2100. In some embodiments, the directionality and bandwidth of the wireless communication technology may support multipledevices 2150 communicating with the base station 2100 at the same timeto thus enable multiple users to use the system 2000 at the same time ina co-located environment. However, other commercial (e.g., Wi-Fi,Bluetooth, etc.) or proprietary wireless communications technologies maybe used in some embodiments.

In some embodiments, the base station 2100 may be configured to renderand transmit frames to the device 2150 to provide a 3D virtual view forthe user based at least in part on sensor 2160 inputs received from thedevice 2150. In some embodiments, the virtual view may includerenderings of the user's environment, including renderings of realobjects in the user's environment, based on video captured by one ormore scene cameras (e.g., RGB (visible light) video cameras) thatcapture high-quality, high-resolution video of the user's environment inreal time for display. In some embodiments, the virtual view may alsoinclude virtual content (e.g., virtual objects, virtual tags for realobjects, avatars of the user, etc.) rendered and composited with theprojected 3D view of the user's real environment by the base station2100.

While not shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 , in some embodiments the VR/MR system2000 may include one or more other components. For example, the systemmay include a cursor control device (e.g., mouse) for moving a virtualcursor in the 3D virtual view to interact with virtual content. WhileFIGS. 7 and 8 show a single device 2150, in some embodiments the VR/MRsystem 2000 may support multiple devices 2150 communicating with thebase station 2100 at the same time to thus enable multiple users to usethe system at the same time in a co-located environment.

The methods described herein may be implemented in software, hardware,or a combination thereof, in different embodiments. In addition, theorder of the blocks of the methods may be changed, and various elementsmay be added, reordered, combined, omitted, modified, etc. Variousmodifications and changes may be made as would be obvious to a personskilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure. The variousembodiments described herein are meant to be illustrative and notlimiting. Many variations, modifications, additions, and improvementsare possible. Accordingly, plural instances may be provided forcomponents described herein as a single instance. Boundaries betweenvarious components, operations and data stores are somewhat arbitrary,and particular operations are illustrated in the context of specificillustrative configurations. Other allocations of functionality areenvisioned and may fall within the scope of claims that follow. Finally,structures and functionality presented as discrete components in theexample configurations may be implemented as a combined structure orcomponent. These and other variations, modifications, additions, andimprovements may fall within the scope of embodiments as defined in theclaims that follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. A video encoding system, comprising: one or moreprocessors; and a memory, storing program instructions that whenexecuted by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processorsto implement: a pre-filter component configured to: pre-filter pixelblocks from a rendered video frame, wherein to pre-filter the pixelblocks, the pre-filter component is further configured to apply a filterto the rendered video frame to correct for distortion that will beintroduced at a receiving device: a wavelet transform componentconfigured to: apply a wavelet transform to the pre-filtered pixelblocks to decompose the pre-filtered pixel blocks into a plurality offrequency bands; organize the plurality of frequency bands into aplurality of frequency blocks each including frequency data forrespective ones of the frequency bands; and provide respective ones ofthe frequency blocks as separate streams, each stream corresponding to arespective one of the frequency bands; and at least one block-basedencoder configured to: process the separate streams of frequency blocks,wherein to process the frequency blocks in a given stream, the at leastone block-based encoder is configured to apply an encoding technique tothe frequency blocks to compress the frequency data in the frequencyblocks; and provide the compressed frequency data from the separatestreams to a wireless interface for transmittal over a wirelessconnection to the receiving device.
 2. The video encoding system asrecited in claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are furtherconfigured to receive, over the wireless connection, lens warp data, forlenses of the receiving device, to be used by the pre-filter componentto correct for the distortion that will be introduced by the lenses ofthe receiving device.
 3. The video encoding system as recited in claim1, wherein, to pre-filter the pixel blocks, the pre-filter component isfurther configured to: apply at least one filter to a peripheral regionof the rendered video frame to reduce resolution in the peripheralregion while maintaining higher resolution in a foveated region of therendered video frame.
 4. The video encoding system as recited in claim1, wherein the rendered video frame is divided into a plurality ofslices, each slice including at least one row of pixel blocks, andwherein the video encoding system is configured to iteratively perform:obtain a given slice of the rendered video frame; pre-filter the pixelblocks in the given slice, wherein to pre-filter the pixel blocks in thegiven slice, the pre-filter component is further configured to apply thefilter to correct for distortion that will be introduced at thereceiving device; apply the wavelet transform to the pre-filtered pixelblocks in the given slice to decompose the pre-filtered pixel blocksinto a plurality of frequency bands organized into a plurality offrequency blocks each including frequency data for one of the frequencybands; provide respective ones of the frequency blocks as separatestreams, each stream corresponding to a respective one of the frequencybands; process the separate streams of frequency blocks, wherein toprocess the frequency blocks in a given stream, the at least oneblock-based encoder is configured to apply the encoding technique to thefrequency blocks of the given stream from the given slice to compressthe frequency data in the frequency blocks; and provide the compressedfrequency data from the separate streams for the slice to the wirelessinterface for transmittal over the wireless connection to the receivingdevice.
 5. The video encoding system as recited in claim 1, wherein therendered video frame is divided into a plurality of slices, each sliceincluding two or more tiles, each tile including two or more pixelblocks, and wherein the video encoding system comprises at least twoblock-based encoders, each encoder configured to process the separatestreams of frequency blocks from a subset of the tiles from each sliceto compress the frequency data in the frequency blocks from therespective subset of the tiles.
 6. The video encoding system as recitedin claim 5, wherein each encoder is configured to multiplex theprocessing of the frequency blocks for the frequency bands between thetiles in its respective subset to allow for multiple time units betweenthe processing of frequency blocks of each frequency band.
 7. The videoencoding system as recited in claim 1, wherein the wavelet transform isa two-level wavelet decomposition applied to each pixel block from therendered video frame.
 8. The video encoding system as recited in claim1, wherein the wavelet transform is an N-level wavelet decompositionapplied to each pixel block from the rendered video frame, where N isadjustable.
 9. The video encoding system as recited in claim 1, whereinto apply the wavelet transform comprises: apply a coring function to oneor more wavelet coefficients of a wavelet decomposition.
 10. The videoencoding system as recited in claim 1, wherein the pixel blocks are128×128 pixel blocks, and wherein the wavelet transform decomposes eachpixel block into sixteen 32×32 blocks of frequency data representingseven different frequency bands.
 11. A method, comprising: one or moreprocessors configured to implement: pre-filtering pixel blocks from arendered video frame, wherein pre-filtering comprises applying a filterto the rendered video frame to correct for distortion that will beintroduced at a receiving device; applying a wavelet transform to thepre-filtered pixel blocks from the rendered video frame to decompose thepre-filtered pixel blocks into a plurality of frequency bands;organizing the plurality of frequency bands into a plurality offrequency blocks each including frequency data for respective ones ofthe frequency bands; providing respective ones of the frequency blocksas separate streams, each stream corresponding to a respective one ofthe frequency bands; processing the separate streams of frequencyblocks, wherein processing the frequency blocks in a given streamcomprises applying an encoding technique to the frequency blocks tocompress the frequency data in the frequency blocks; and transmittingthe compressed frequency data from the separate streams to the receivingdevice over a wireless connection.
 12. The method as recited in claim11, wherein the pre-filtering the pixel blocks further comprises:applying at least one filter to a peripheral region of the renderedvideo frame to reduce resolution in the peripheral region whilemaintaining higher resolution in a foveated region of the rendered videoframe.
 13. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the video frame isdivided into a plurality of slices, each slice including at least onerow of pixel blocks, and wherein the one or more processors perform saidpre-filtering the pixel blocks, said applying a wavelet transform, saidorganizing, said providing, said processing the separate streams offrequency blocks, and said transmitting for each slice of the renderedvideo frame.
 14. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the renderedvideo frame is divided into a plurality of slices, each slice includingtwo or more tiles, each tile including two or more pixel blocks, andwherein the one or more processors perform said pre-filtering the pixelblocks, said applying the wavelet transform, said organizing, saidproviding, said processing the separate streams of frequency blocks, andsaid transmitting for each tile of the rendered video frame.
 15. Themethod as recited in claim 14, wherein said processing the separatestreams of frequency blocks is performed by at least two block-basedencoders, each encoder processing the separate streams of frequencyblocks from a subset of the tiles from each slice to compress thefrequency data in the frequency blocks from the respective subset of thetiles, the method further comprising each encoder multiplexing theprocessing of the frequency blocks for the frequency bands between thetiles in its respective subset to allow for multiple time units betweenthe processing of frequency blocks of each frequency band.
 16. Themethod as recited in claim 11, wherein the wavelet transform is atwo-level wavelet decomposition applied to each pixel block from therendered video frame.
 17. A system, comprising: a device comprising oneor more processors and a display subsystem; and a base stationcomprising: one or more processors configured to: pre-filter pixelblocks comprising pixel data from a rendered video frame, wherein topre-filter comprises applying a filter to the rendered video frame tocorrect for distortion that will be introduced at the display subsystem;apply a wavelet transform to the pre-filtered pixel blocks comprisingpixel data to decompose the pixel data into a plurality of frequencybands; organize the plurality of frequency bands into a plurality offrequency blocks each including frequency data for respective ones ofthe frequency bands; and provide respective ones of the frequency blocksas separate streams, each stream corresponding to a respective one ofthe frequency bands; and at least one block-based encoder configured toprocess the separate streams of frequency blocks, wherein to process thefrequency blocks in a given stream, the at least one block-based encoderis configured to apply an encoding technique to the frequency blocks tocompress the frequency bands; and a wireless interface configured totransmit the compressed frequency bands over a wireless connection tothe device; and wherein the one or more processors of the device areconfigured to: decompress the compressed frequency bands received fromthe base station; perform wavelet synthesis on the decompressedfrequency bands to reconstruct the pixel data for the rendered videoframe; and provide the reconstructed pixel data to the display subsystemfor display.
 18. The system as recited in claim 17, wherein thepre-filter the pixel blocks further comprises: apply at least one filterto a peripheral region of the rendered video frame to reduce resolutionin the peripheral region while maintaining higher resolution in afoveated region of the rendered video frame.
 19. The system as recitedin claim 17, wherein the device is a head-mounted display (HMD).
 20. Thesystem as recited in claim 17, wherein the one or more processors of thebase station are further configured to receive, over the wirelessconnection, lens warp data, for lenses of the display subsystem, to beused to pre-filter the pixel blocks to correct for the distortion thatwill be introduced by the lenses of the display subsystem.